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September stage fit for King Felix Hernandez

Felix Hernandez, the 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner and a leading contender this season, may be pitching his biggest game to date when he opposes Jon Lester and the Oakland Athletics Tuesday in a marquee matchup.

OAKLAND -- Felix Hernandez needed a few moments and a reminder to recall the last meaningful game he pitched in September.

It's hard to blame him. It was, after all, seven years ago.

The Seattle Mariners were two games off the wild-card lead on Sept. 2, 2007, when Hernandez pitched them to a 7-1 win over the New York Yankees, closing the margin to one. Seattle then dropped its next four and six of seven, and that was it for the club as a September contender for years to come.

The Mariners finished fourth in the American League West five of the following six seasons, never closer than 12 games out, time and again wasting the efforts of one of the premier pitchers of his era.

This time seems to be different.

Under the stewardship of new manager Lloyd McClendon, Seattle is the leading challenger for the AL's second wild card, 1½ games behind the Detroit Tigers.

Hernandez, the 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner and a leading contender this season, may be pitching his biggest game to date when he opposes Jon Lester and the Oakland Athletics today in a marquee matchup.

If rotations hold, those two aces could also go against each other in a wild-card game.

"I'm really excited,'' Hernandez said in Spanish about pitching in a playoff race. "It feels different. Every game counts and the environment is different.''

Despite the Mariners' extended stretch of futility – they last made the playoffs in 2001 and have posted winning records in just two of his previous nine seasons – Hernandez passed up the chance to join a better team via free agency when he signed a seven-year, $175 million contract in February 2013.

At the time the deal was the richest ever for a pitcher, but beyond the huge payout – which he could have gotten elsewhere – it confirmed the commitment to his adoptive city by the native of Venezuela. Hernandez has long maintained he and his family are happy in Seattle, where he moved full-time five years ago, and he had faith the Mariners would come around.

They took a major step in that direction when they signed second baseman Robinson Cano to a 10-year, $240 million contract in the offseason and hired McClendon to steer the ship.

"This is what I envisioned,'' said Hernandez, 28. "As I told everybody, this is where I want to make the playoffs.''

That's still no sure thing, but the Mariners' turnaround has been dramatic. Going into today's game, their run differential of plus-92 was the fourth-best in baseball, a remarkable improvement of 222 runs from last year's minus-130, which led to a 71-91 record.

And Hernandez has more than done his part. Despite a recent stretch of three subpar outings, he ranks second in the league in ERA at 2.23 to go with a 13-5 record and a league-best (for pitchers) wins above replacement figure of 5.9. He also ranks first in WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) at 0.91 and second in innings with 198.

From May 18-Aug. 11, Hernandez had 16 consecutive starts where he pitched at least seven innings and allowed no more than two runs, setting a major league mark. He was 9-2 with a 1.41 ERA in that spell. One of his victims were the A's, whom he has long tortured, winning 18 of his career 25 decisions against them.

A's manager Bob Melvin, who was at the helm in Seattle in 2003 and '04, has seen an evolution from the former fireballer into a consummate pitcher.

"I go way back with Felix to where he was basically fastball-curveball, throwing 98 mph,'' Melvin said. "The changeup is really the pitch that's put him where he is now. I guess you could call it a changeup. It's up to 91 mph. It acts more like a split than a changeup, but even when you look for it, it's a very difficult pitch to hit.''

Hernandez has been vulnerable of late, giving up 10 earned runs in 17 2/3 innings (a 5.10 ERA) in the three starts since the streak ended. McClendon has acknowledged the pitching staff, which leads the majors with a 3.05 ERA, has shown signs of fatigue, and he has responded by giving the starters extra rest on occasion.

McClendon also points out Hernandez faced veteran teams that know how to make a pitcher work in those games. Those same type of teams likely will stand in the Mariners' way as they try to reach the playoffs, and McClendon said his ace will have to make some changes.

"There are absolutely things he has to do, things he has to adjust,'' McClendon said. "I'm not willing to put them in the paper, though, because I don't want our opponents to read about them.''

Even though McClendon and Cano and on the same team with Hernandez for the first time, both say they have seen enough of his competitive side to be convinced he'll deliver as the games grow in importance and the pressure builds.

Cano recalls how much Hernandez relished going into Yankee Stadium – where he's 5-1 with a 1.37 ERA in seven starts – and shutting down the powerful New York Yankees clubs the second baseman played for.

"When you know you're good and you work, as he does, and you know what you have to do and locate the pitches, things are easy,'' Cano said. "You just have to play your game, forget it's September or October and keep playing like you always do.''​